For 40 advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/AutumnXd
Luke stood at the Monarch Realm, nothing more, while Selene had long since reached the peak of the Emperor Realm, and the strongest card in her hand, the Simurgh, had attained the rare Ten-Star grade. Judged by star-level alone, the Simurgh had already surpassed Red-Eyes Black Dragon and its like among card spirits, standing within the sequence of super-grade cards.
As a super-grade card that stood above the high-grade tier entirely, even a Red-Eyes Black Dragon twice as strong as the current one would be no opponent for the Simurgh.
Following at Lilith's side, Selene held real confidence that upon ascending into the later stages of the Sovereign Realm, she would come into contact with Ten-Star cards of even higher quality. But the time that would consume was anything but short, and judging by Luke's showing and the arc of his growth, this little junior brother plainly could not be extrapolated by any common sense.
At the barest minimum, she certainly hadn't possessed a full squad of Seven-Star cards at the moment of her own enrollment. Or rather, that was simply not something a normal person could do.
If things carried on like this, then her days as the dignified senior sister were numbered. Before long, Luke would overtake her and press her firmly underfoot, and by then she'd have no authority left to speak of at all.
"Selene? What's gotten into you?" Catching sight of Selene's bitter little face, Moira blinked at her in confusion. This girl rarely wore so many expressions in a day. What on earth had brought this one on?
"It's nothing. I just suddenly felt that I'm still not grinding hard enough, that's all." Selene waved a hand, and what she said very nearly sent Moira leaping on the spot.
You reached the Emperor Realm's peak inside of ten years, and you call that not grinding hard enough? I'm centuries your senior, and all I've managed is to step across the Sovereign threshold! Are you planning to grind every last one of us into our graves before your heart can rest?
"Hm!" A cold prickle ran down her spine, and Selene's fox-bright eyes darted warily around the area. "Why do I suddenly feel as though someone's marking me for death?"
Unfortunately, she found nothing out of place, and in the end could only chalk it up to her own oversensitivity.
"Stronger than even I projected, it seems." Paying the two women no mind at all, Tobias studied the Luke on the screen along with his card spirits, rubbing his chin slowly. "Perhaps when the time comes, the Academy War could count Luke among the party."
The slots for participating in the Academy War were limited, and whether Luke would have the chance to take one from another's hands remained to be seen. In the quiet of his heart, Tobias noted it down. If Luke could grow another step further in the coming stretch, the possibility was real. It seemed that once formal enrollment began, the Academy was going to become a livelier place by far.
---
"Your dragon-kind is strong!" The Skywing Dragon had been burst apart by the black dragon and reverted at last to card form, returning into her body, and though a thread of loss lingered in the dragon-maiden Violet's eyes, there was not one shred of resentment or anger in them. What filled them instead was admiration, and respect.
The strong deserved to be given their full measure of respect. This was Dragon's Valley's creed of the weak falling prey to the strong made manifest, and even after the Dragon Renegades' Rebellion, that attitude had never once changed.
To say nothing of the fact that Luke had defeated her within her own specialty. In the battle just past, he had used not a single underhanded trick, but had crushed her head-on, in the open, and Violet was convinced from heart to mouth.
"Your Skywing Dragon isn't bad either." Reading that Violet held no desire to fight on, Luke raised a hand and recalled the black dragon.
The Skywing Dragon being burst apart hardly meant the Skywing Dragon was weak. It could only be said that Luke's dragon stood a full cut stronger. A Seven-Star, Collectible-grade dragon-kind was the sort of opponent that even someone at Elise's level, upon meeting it, would absolutely be dragged into a bitter fight against.
"If the chance ever arises, I hope we might explore the crafting of dragon-family cards together." Violet walked slowly up to Luke and extended her hand, a thread of open hope glimmering in the depths of her eyes.
It was rare indeed to meet a Dragon Envoy outside of Dragon's Valley, and this one was not only a peer of her own age, but the dragon-family cards he crafted ran stronger than her own besides. Set against the Academy's other Card Masters, Violet was, quite naturally, far more willing to draw close to Luke.
"If the chance arises, gladly." His interest stirring, Luke reached out and clasped Violet's hand. Truth be told, he held no small curiosity toward the power that was Dragon's Valley.
"Then, see you after enrollment." It was only a single clasp before the two released, and as they were teleported from the battle space in turn, a flush too faint for the eye to easily catch climbed Violet's face, and she gave Luke a light little wave.
---
"Tamer, this time I only managed to take three Trial Crystals." Teleported back out of the battle space, Sistermon Ciel came before Luke and clapped out the Trial Crystals claimed during this round of forced battles. "However, I've also finished scouting every last region of the Trial Road. I can continue the operation at any moment."
As time wore on, the new students still remaining within the Trial Road had dwindled to very few, and the number of Trial Crystals left for the taking had shrunk right along with them.
"Good work, Ciel." Taking the crystals, Luke reached out beneath Dark Magician Girl's openly envious gaze and gave Sistermon Ciel a long pat on the head. "Rest for now. It's about time we wrapped this whole thing up."
Luke had no intention of sending Sistermon Ciel back out to scout and seize more crystals. Card spirits could battle without limit so long as the mana supply held, true, but Luke was no black-hearted merchant, and he wasn't about to squeeze his spirits' strength dry. By any measure, Sistermon Ciel had already over-fulfilled her tasks in this stretch.
"Everyone, make your preparations. It's time we brought this Trial Road to its close!" By Luke's arithmetic, the new students still remaining within the Trial Road likely numbered no more than ten-odd, which meant at most another two or three rounds would see the whole thing finished.
But at the pace of two hours per round, that still meant nearly six more hours of waiting, and Luke had no interest whatsoever in going on wasting his time here.
The seized Trial Crystals were merged by Luke into his own, and the points within, which had long since broken into four digits, climbed higher still, advancing steadily upon the three-thousand mark. "I can't shake the feeling that even converted one-to-one into credits, this is on the light side. Is the Academy being a bit of a cheapskate?"
---
"The nerve of this kid. Truly never satisfied." Hearing Luke's grumbling, Moira rolled her eyes without restraint. "This is what comes of not knowing just how much weight credits carry inside the Academy."
"The great majority of new students who take the Trial Road's assessment walk away with a few hundred points and no more. The ones who break a thousand are few and far between. And as for anyone drawing near the three-thousand mark the way Luke is, in all my memory, there has never been such a new student."
"I rather think that attitude of his is a healthy thing." Drake spoke up, and perhaps because Luke had defeated Violet on pure strength, this elder of a Valley that lived by the law of the strong looked upon Luke with genuine appreciation.
"Old Drake has it right for once." Tobias laughed. This kid genuinely did suit his taste. "Moira girl, if I remember it rightly, you took eight-hundred-odd points in your day. As for you, Dawnford girl, you fared a touch better, breaking past a thousand."
The two women both nodded, and Selene's face even carried a small, rueful edge. "Mm. Back then, had I been given just a little more time, my points would have had the chance to break past two thousand."
Every iteration of the Trial Road ran on a different theme, but the total points its new students could earn stayed roughly comparable across the years. An entrant like Selene, whose score had approached two thousand, was already the rarest of rare birds, and as for a monster closing in on three thousand the way Luke was, neither of the two women had so much as heard of one.
"Candidates who surpassed three thousand points in the entrance trial are not without precedent. It is merely that the era in question lies rather far removed from your own." Tobias's words yanked both women straight back out of their thoughts.
Plz THROW Powerstones stones.